2011 State Wide Science Fair!

On the weekend of March 19^th - 20^th, I was fortunate enough to volunteer and judge at the Alaska Science & Engineering Fair. This fair welcomes science, engineering, computer science, and mathematical projects from students K-12 in Alaska. More than 70 schools throughout Alaska were represented by a record number of more than 600 participating students. With a total of 513 individual and team projects the judges had their hands full on Saturday interviewing and scoring all of them. However, after a full day of work by judges, projects were chosen for awards presented at an awards ceremony on Sunday. The Senior High Grand Award winners for this year who will go onto the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in May are:

First place Sophia Meyers with "Possible Applications of Superorder Selachimorpha (shark) Characteristics in the Marine Industry"

Second place, Noah Betzen with "The Effects of Calcium Carbonate on Ocean Acidification"

The team project of Nicole Emanuel and Marie Gotti with "Analyzing Protein Content in Common Vegetarian Meat Substitutes".

Pictures of some of the other projects at this year's science fair.

The Alaska COSEE (Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence) Ocean Science Fair took place at the same time as a “fair within a fair” for projects related to the ocean, watersheds, or climate change that also have a cultural component. I helped judge these projects, as a scientist, on their scientific content at the same time that cultural and community experts judged them on their community and cultural relevance. More than 40 projects were judged for COSEE Ocean Science Fair awards, which were given in separate categories for ocean science and culture.

Winners of the ocean science awards were:

Elementary:

Ben Post and Nicholas Post (Turnagin Elementary, Anchorage; Teacher: Janet Post)

“What Boat Design Can Cary the Heaviest Load?”

Middle School:

Christian Escalante and Sierra Moskios (Unalaska; Teacher: Story Miller)

”Waving, Rotating, Creating”

High School (tie):

China Kantner and Ember Eck (Kotzebue; Teachers: Lance Westing and Robbie Everett)

“The Big Empty”

Molly Volk, Paige Olson and Courtney Bird (Petersburg; Teacher: Joni Johnson)

”Genetic Differentiation of Cancer magister”

Winners of the cultural awards were:

Elementary:

Naasha Tallman (Alaska Native Cultural Charter School, Anchorage; Teacher: Desiree Cronin)

” Does Water Exist on Other Planets in Our Solar System?”

Middle School:

Molly Adams (Barrow; Teacher: Emily Roseberry)

“Bowhead Whales”

High School (tie):

China Kantner and Ember Eck (Kotzebue; Teachers: Lance Westing and Robbie Everett)

” The Big Empty”

Jadyn Edwardsen (Barrow; Teacher: Emily Roseberry)

“How Does the Preparation of Sinew Affect its Strength?”

China Kantner and Ember Eck also received a combined ocean science and cultural award.

All the high school students who won a COSEE award will be invited to attend and present their projects at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium in Anchorage next January with all expenses covered by COSEE.